1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to image creating apparatuses applied to video game machines using, for example, a cassette recording medium or the like in which an optical disk, a magnetic disk, or a semiconductor memory containing program data, is used, and to image creating methods therefor and computer-readable recording media containing image recording programs.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many game systems have been proposed, such as a system comprised of a home-use game console and a television monitor, a commercial-use game machine, and a system comprised of a personal computer or work station, a display, and a sound output device.
These game systems each include a player-operated controller, a recording medium containing game-program data, a central processing unit (CPU) for performing control for the generation of sound and images based on the game-program data, a processor for generating images, a processor for generating sound, a monitor for displaying images, and a speaker for outputting the generated sound. In many cases, the types of recording medium include a compact-disk read-only memory (CD-ROM), a semiconductor memory, and a cassette having a built-in semiconductor memory.
In these game systems, in general, three-dimensional models as objects displayed on a screen are composed of polygons as a plurality of two-dimensional virtual triangular or square figures, and the polygons, on which textures such as two-dimensional image data are pasted, are displayed on the monitor. Normally, the textures to be pasted on the polygons are separately set and stored in a memory beforehand.
In some video games, objects must be displayed with only their colors changed, even if the objects are otherwise identical. In this case, if textures are determined for colors, the respective textures also need to be stored in a memory, which increases the memory capacity necessary. However, particularly in home-use game machines, the number of colors capable of being displayed is limited because memory capacity is limited by cost, machine size, etc.